Chun ja mun

Ad Mundo Exteriore,

I meant to talk on and on about how the Heian court culture in Japan is starkly different from Yi Choson court culture in Korea, or rather my skewed perspective of the Yi Choson court through the eyes of historical drama directors and my parents. Actually, the Heian period seems to be synchronous with the Three Kingdoms period, which is much more Buddhist and much less Confucian, so perhaps there isn't so much of a difference. Nevertheless, the Heian court etiquette and rituals seem to be much more tied up on rules of aesthetics rather than the austere symbolic Confucianism which governs the Choson court. It feels softer, really. Anyway, the conclusion was that it's easier to read Chinese novels in translation than Japanese novels, because even though the language gap between Chinese and Korean may be wider, there is a common Confucian thread which feels familiar. All this analysis is completely subjective and based on personal associations, of course, so don't take me too seriously.

So as I said, I had intended to dwell on that for about a page, but currently, all I can think of are the sixteen characters I'm supposed to memorize by the end of this weekend. I've started the study of Chun ja mun, which I translate loosely as Thousand Characters Text. The first four maxims are:

chun ji hyeon hwang: heaven earth black yellow
u ju hong hwang: house house wide rough
il weol yeong cheuk: sun moon fill decline
jin suk ryul jang: star sleep spread distribute

Or perhaps a better translation would be:

"The sky is dark, and the earth is yellow."
"The universe is endlessly wide and uneven."
"The sun and moon fill the sky but both must set and wane."
"The stars spread widely across the night sky."

Kind of philosophical if you think about it. I'm supposed to practice writing them too, until I memorize them perfectly. >_< Father and Mother keep criticizing my awful handwriting, as if I'm supposed to make my inadequate ballpoint pen draw like a brush.

...Tari